Annual Leave on Sick Leave

The long awaited decision in Stringer v HMRC has been made today by the House of Lords in favour of employees, overturning the previous Court of Appeal decision in this case.

It has been unanimously held that a claim for unpaid holiday or a payment on termination of employment are both unauthorised deduction claims. As a result of this decision employees can benefit from the longer time limits which apply to unlawful deduction claims which can be made within three months of the last in a series of deductions - that would allow a claim to go back more than three months if the underpayments were part of a series.

In a previous ECJ decision a member state could allow an employee on sick leave to take annual leave or could prevent the employee taking leave while off sick but only so long as the employee had the right to carry over holidays to following year/s if he or she was unable to take leave because of illness. The ECJ had also held that compensation payments on termination should not be discounted on account of sickness.

Disclaimer: the contents of this blog are not intended form the basis of legal advice. Independent legal advice should be taken from your own solicitor for all cases.